There have been numerous designs for display easels proposed. Some of these designs incorporate an opening in the front of the easel in which the object being displayed is placed. U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,435 to Lin and U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,293 to Sachnoff have such an opening. This type of design doesn't permit objects of varying widths to be placed on the easel and the angle at which the object rests on the easel is not adjustable. Of the easel designs that incorporate a shelf for an object to rest on, allowing objects of varying widths to be placed on it, many allow the easel to be collapsed for portability reasons. U.S. Pat. No. 7,334,768 to Lum collapses but does not collapse completely flat. The design also uses a number of parts including hinges to connect the parts of the easel together. Another easel design, U.S. Pat. No. 2,591,170 to Levinson, also has multiple parts including pin hinges that hold the structural parts together. Because both of these designs have multiple parts, the complexity and cost of manufacturing is increased.
Of those easel designs that are made from one piece of material, few are both collapsible and adjustable. The design claimed incorporates the ability to manufacture the rear support panel with variable multiple slot positions in the rear support panel to provide different view angles. One common design type is based on a V-shaped structure. U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,882 to Snuffer and U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,798 to Glick are examples of the V-shaped design. Although these easels are adjustable, the angle of adjustability is narrow. Also, when these easels are collapsed, their profiles are jagged making them less portable. Another type of easel design uses a triangular shape structure. U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,778 to Lee and U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,049 to Olvey are both examples of this type of design. They are adjustable by partially folding the base of the easel. But there are only two adjustment settings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,182 to Jacobson, another triangular design, comprises a single strip of material in the form of a triangle. It utilizes a pair of slits on one end of a strip through which the other end of the strip goes in one slit and out the other to form an upside down V-shaped shelf. Although collapsible, the easel must be disassembled beforehand. Another one-piece design, U.S. Pat. No. 1,976,421 to Traeger, is not adjustable and needs to be disassembled before folding up. U.S. Pat. No. 7,219,871 to Hecker and U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,423 to Michela are examples of an origami-like non-adjustable easel design. Michela's easel includes parts that need to be glued together, complicating the manufacturing process. U.S. Pat. No. 1,470,159 to Gibson, proposed an M-shaped easel design but it lacks stability.
Smart phones have become ubiquitous in the personal and business communication world. They feature a screen on which may be displayed various forms of information including videos, movies and c-books. To view the screen ergonomically, the smart phone must be either held or propped up by some means so that a proper viewing angle may be achieved. In many instances, it is so desired to be able to charge said electronic device while being held in a position to view the object.